GREEN THUMBS UP: Native Wildflowers Provide Fabulous Fall Color

Saturday

Sep 30, 2017 at 2:00 PM

By Suzanne Mahler

Tropical storm Jose continues to swirl offshore on this damp, windy Friday morning, scattering more debris across my landscape. Potted orphans in my driveway collection have tipped over and rolled around for days and taller plants in my mixed containers, including elegant salvias and multicolored coleus, have been snapped and shredded. A large curly willow, planted more than 30 years ago, lies across my fence and daylily beds, uprooted by the lingering wind gusts, but I am grateful for the rainfall which our parched lawns and gardens so desperately need.

With each growing season that passes, faithful dirt diggers gain new insights as to which plants perform best under less than ideal conditions, with many gardeners now realizing the benefits of using native plants as the backbones of their gardens. When suitably matched to their natural habitats, these plants not only survive but generally thrive despite adverse weather conditions.

The prolific purplish-pink blooms of our native Joe-Pye-Weed (formerly Eupatorium; now Eutrochium) fill my damp meadow during August and September while selected cultivars grace my borders, including the 6-foot tall ‘Gateway’ and the shorter ‘Little Joe’ and ‘Baby Joe’. Pretty lavender-blue blossoms are provided by E. coelestinum, commonly known as hardy Ageratum (now Conoclinium). Late to emerge in the spring, this fall-bloomer has a tendency to spread when grown in moist soils, but its fabulous long-lasting floral display during the fall season is worth annual thinning, plus it serves as an irresistible lure to multitudes of bees and butterflies. Perhaps my favorite is E. ‘Chocolate’ (now Ageratina), boasting handsome bronze-tinted leaves early in the season topped by clusters of fuzzy white flowers in September and October. More restrained in growth, this is a fabulous addition to any perennial border.

Glorious goldenrods (Solidago) offer weeks of color with their dense clusters of teeny-tiny yellow daisies that serve as magnets for pollinators. Many species can be seen thriving in meadows and along roadsides throughout our area, each featuring slightly different flower forms including dense panicles, graceful open plumes, compact wands, or flat-topped varieties with delicate willow-like foliage. These hardy perennials have often been scorned due to the unfortunate misconception that they cause hay fever in the fall. Ragweed is the actual culprit, its inconspicuous green flowers of no interest to pollinators so it must rely on wind to transfer billions of small pollen grains to ensure cross-pollination and seed production.

Occasionally, goldenrods find their way into my cultivated borders. Although I usually eradicate these wild intruders due to their vigorous nature, several hybrids with restrained growth habits have been welcomed into my garden including S. ‘Golden Fleece’, only 15 inches tall with delicate sprays of bright yellow flowers on compact plants and S. ‘Fireworks’, reaching 3 to 4 feet with handsome dark green foliage and dazzling 18-inch long flower spikes in September and October.

Dramatic 6-8 foot tall clumps of New York ironweed (Vernonia), boasting broad clusters of fluffy violet flowers, have faded in recent weeks but served as attractive companions to stately clumps of Rudbeckia nitida ‘Herbstsonne’ whose green-coned, yellow daisies begin blooming in July and continue well into October. A more recent introduction, Vernonia ‘Iron Butterfly’, offers a totally different look with delicate foliage, clusters of small purple flowers, and compact habit, growing only 30 to36 inches tall.

Our native fall-blooming asters (now Symphyotrichum) offer a wonderful diversity of heights and colors, all characteristically producing a profusion of single or semi-double daisy-like flowers with yellow centers in vibrant tones of rich royal purple, glowing pink, vivid raspberry and glistening white. The showiest, most colorful members of the genus tend to be the New England asters and the New York asters. Butterflies and bees find the multitude of daisies irresistible, especially Monarch butterflies that will soon begin their annual fall pilgrimage to Mexico.

In my shady borders, attractive clumps of turtlehead (Chelone) are in full bloom, with terminal spikes of deep pink flowers that resemble turtles’ heads against dense, dark green, lustrous foliage. These hardy native plants offer a handsome contrast to the finely divided, purple-tinted leaves of the bugbanes (Actaea; formerly Cimicifuga), now topped with fragrant bottlebrush blooms.

While many wild plants appear somewhat coarse in traditional borders, these hardy perennials provide color when many other early-bloomers are in decline. Try a few of these reliable natives for a spectacular floral display during the late summer and early autumn.

— Suzanne Mahler is an avid gardener, photographer and lecturer. She is a member of a local garden club, past president of the New England Daylily Society, an overseer for the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and is employed at a garden center.

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